Memorials of Connecticut Judges and Attorneys
As Printed in the Connecticut Reports
volume 44, page(s) 602-606

OBITUARY NOTICE OF ORRIS S. FERRY

ORRIS SANFORD FERRY, a member of the Fairfield County bar, was born at
Bethel, August 15th, 1823 and died at Norwalk, where he resided,
on the 21st of November, 1875. His father, Starr Ferry, was a
manufacturer, and for a time sheriff of Fairfield County. Young Ferry was
fond of athletic games and sports, and when grown to manhood greatly enjoyed
a day's recreation with his gun or fishing rod. He worked a short time, when
a boy, in his father's hat factory, but his growing love of books soon
determined him to seek a liberal education. At the age of seventeen he
entered Yale College, graduating in 1844. He excelled when in college in
general literature, oratory and debate, being awarded by the faculty the
highest literary prizes, and taking such rank among his fellow-students that
they regarded his future eminence as assured.

Immediately after graduation he began the study of law under the late
Judge Osborne, at Fairfield, and afterwards pursued it at Norwalk, in the
office of Hon. Thomas B. Butler, since Chief Justice. He was admitted to the
bar in 1846, and was for a short time in partnership with Judge Butler. Mr.
Ferry about this time married Miss Charlotte C. Bissell, a daughter of
Governor Bissell, who with a daughter, survives him.

Mr. Ferry soon became a conspicuous character in the community in which
he lived. A native of the county, of popular manners, a generous
disposition, a tall and commanding figure, a highly intellectual face, of
fine abilities and culture, and already a practiced and eloquent public
speaker, ambitious of professional distinction, with too much pride of
character to be a self-seeker and yet a natural leader, he could not fail
soon to attract the public attention. He soon found himself in the enjoyment
of a good practice, which steadily increased, and though he was at times
drawn aside from his profession, he never returned to it without finding an
immediate and abundant call for his services. While he was yet a young man
he ranked among the leaders of the bar in the amount of his business and the
ability and success with which it was conducted.

If Mr. Ferry had devoted his life to his profession he would have been a
great lawyer. He had a fine legal mind. It was not acute and subtle, but it
was broad, comprehensive, logical, quick of apprehension, and rapid in its
operations. He had an excellent memory, both of facts and principles. He was
not a man of especial tact, nor of artful expedients, neither was he cool,
calculating and passionless; on the contrary, he was always frank,
open-hearted, ardent in temperament, and naturally so impulsive that he
would often have made grievous mistakes but for the restraining power of his
strong common sense and clear intellect. He had an excellent knowledge of
the common law as a scientific system, and loved to read the abstruse
treaties of the old writers. His conservative mind was somewhat impatient of
modern innovations, yet had the flexibility to recognize and adapt itself to
the actual condition of things. He was not deceived by sophistries, either
in his own argument or that of his opponent, but was a clear, logical
reasoner, and was especially powerful as an advocate, both before juries and
courts. Great responsibility never depressed him or paralyzed his efforts,
but always nerved him with increased energy and power. His legal arguments
and opinions were rapidly but carefully and deliberately prepared; and he
was a safe and judicious legal adviser. His mode of examining a legal
question was characteristic of his mind. He never counted the authorities on
one side and the other, but quickly turned to the leading cases, scrutinized
the reasonings of the judges, rapidly seized upon the exact point decided,
and then by comparison of the cases formed his own judgment of what was the
true principle, with its just limitations. In the trial of his cases in
court, where of course he was most conspicuous to the public eye, he was not
especially conciliatory in manner, but was always courteous to his opponent,
fair and candid in his statement of law and evidence, and always bold and
aggressive, winning often where a timid man would have failed. He was always
ready to try his cases when reached, never appeared at a disadvantage for
want of preparation, and never had to rely on the good nature of his
opponent to overlook his own remissness. He was prompt, faithful and
conscientious in the discharge of all his professional duties, and manly and
dignified in his intercourse with clients, members of the bar and courts.

Mr. Ferry was for a short time Judge of Probate for the district of
Norwalk. In 1855 and 1856 he was a member of the State Senate, and from 1856
to 1859 was State's Attorney for Fairfield County.

When he entered the legislature he was a young man, and was then for the
first time in public life. He there found himself associated with gentlemen
of unusual experience and ability, but his own talents soon gave him a
recognized rank among the ablest of them. He now became known to the state
at large, and from this time was a positive power in the affairs of the
commonwealth. He acted, when in the legislature, with the so-called American
party, which was then dominant, but followed his own judgment when it
differed from that of the majority, and manifested the same independence of
party dictation which was characteristic of him through life. The Republican
party, brought into being by the repeal of the Missouri Compromise, was then
just beginning its existence. Mr. Ferry was among the first to see that the
principle it represented was to be the inevitable issue in politics, and he
fully sympathized with it. He labored zealously to bring those with whom he
was then acting into a union with the new party. This result was soon
substantially accomplished, and Mr. Ferry was ever afterwards a Republican,
though in his later years he often differed with the majority of his party,
on questions of both principle and policy.

His services as an advocate of the principles of his party were much
sought and freely rendered. He entered with great zeal into the Presidential
canvass of 1856, making many public speeches in this and the neighboring
states. In 1857 he was nominated for Congress and was defeated. In 1859 he
was again nominated. It was not then common in New England for candidates to
address the people in their own behalf. Mr. Ferry yielded reluctantly to the
request of the convention which nominated him, and spoke in every town in
the district. The contest was considered a doubtful one, but Mr. Ferry was
elected by a handsome majority, and the result attributed in great measure
to his own speeches.

Mr. Ferry was in many respects remarkable as a public speaker. He
possessed a fine taste, and when the occasion required it, could prepare
addresses of much literary merit. His delineations of the characters of
Roger Sherman and of Governor Buckingham, on presenting to Congress a statue
of the former, and on the death of the latter, (Mr. Ferry's last effort,)
are models of chaste eloquence, seldom surpassed in their kind. In the
discussion, however, of issues before the people or in public bodies, as
well as in his arguments at the bar, he never spoke to amuse or be admired,
but always to convince or persuade. With perhaps a few exceptions in the
earlier part of his congressional career, he always spoke extemporaneously,
his preparation being a clear comprehension and firm mental grasp of his
subject, and a definite plan in his mind of his mode of treating it. He
began with a clear statement of the issue in hand, and proceeded in an
unbroken argument to the end, always carrying his audience with him in
unflagging attention and interest; and yet he never attempted to amuse his
audience or relieve the tedium of his argument by anecdote, wit or sarcasm,
nor to embellish it by literary quotation. So much in earnest was he that he
could not have done so even of he had possessed the faculty for it. He never
raised a laugh. Unless in the discussion of purely legal questions before a
court, where he spoke with calmness and deliberation, he was earnest and
impassioned in manner, enchaining attention, and often, as it were,
compelling assent. When great interests were at stake he seemed wholly
enwrapped in his subject, his large eyes flashing with enthusiasm, and his
whole person giving emphasis to his utterances. His statements of
propositions of law or fact were admirable for clearness and force, and his
reasonings lucid and compact. The learned and the unlearned alike
appreciated his eloquence, and gave him their undivided attention. His
language was well chosen, but not fastidious. There was nothing sententious,
brilliant or especially original in his style of expression or mode of
thought, but his words, tersely and forcibly expressing his meaning, issued
forth, when in his impassioned arguments, like the rush of a torrent. He
never halted or hesitated in the choice of language, nor had occasion to
recall a word misused, to re-construct a tangled or obscure sentence, or to
re-state a proposition to make it more clear. And in this respect his manner
in private conversation was the same.

In the autumn of 1859, before taking his seat in Congress, Mr. Ferry made
a public profession of religion by uniting with the First Congregational
Church of Norwalk; and the profession of his faith was not with him a matter
of mere form. From that time to his death he was a consistent and active
Christian worker. When he was at home, as long as his health allowed, he
taught a Bible class in the Sunday-school, and was a regular attendant and
participant in the meetings of the church. When no pastor was present he
often conducted evening meetings, and delivered lectures. His successive
pastors have borne public testimony to the depth and earnestness of his
religious convictions and the great value of his influence. He was a man
emphatically of growth in religious character as well as intellectual power
and breadth, to the day of his death.

While he was a member of the National House of Representatives he
delivered two elaborate speeches on the slavery question, and the threatened
secession of the Southern States, in which he ably set forth and defended
the principles of the Republican party, and was a member of the celebrated
committee of thirty-three on the state of the Union. In 1861 he was again
nominated for Congress, and was defeated.

Being in Washington at the breaking out of the civil war, he enlisted in
a volunteer battalion for the temporary defense of the seat of government,
and served until troops were obtained from the North. He was soon after
tendered and accepted the command of the Fifth Regiment Connecticut
Volunteers. He was afterwards promoted to be brigadier-general, and served
through the war, with an honorable though not brilliant record.

Returning in 1865 to his profession, he was a year later chosen United
States Senator for the term commencing in 1867, and was re-elected in 1872.
The limits of this notice will not admit an outline of his senatorial
career. Many questions of grave importance, growing out of the late war,
demanded the attention of Congress. Corruption was rife in many departments
of the public service. The conventional usages of the Senate restrained Mr.
Ferry at first from taking a prominent part in the debates, and in the
spring of 1869 an insidious disease, ultimately fatal, attacked his spine,
and gradually impaired his physical powers, so that in the latter part of
his career he could not mingle in the discussions to the extent that he
would have desired. He was, however, always at his post of duty, and a
laborious worker on committees, where he had a prominent place; and he spoke
frequently, at first in more elaborate efforts, but afterwards generally in
off-hand powerful arguments, inspired by his earnest and positive
convictions, and remarkable for compactness, brevity and effective force. He
came to be regarded as one of the ablest members of the Senate, and his
acknowledged uprightness, independence and intellectual power combined to
give him an influence in that body hardly surpassed by any in his time. He
died with no blot on his good name, and no man ever suspected his integrity,
or questioned his purity or his personal honor.

At his death his associates in Congress and his brethren at the Fairfield
County bar paid fitting tributes to his memory. Hon. Carl Schurz, who was
one of the most eminent members of the Senate during six years of Mr.
Ferry's service, in opening a public lecture at Norwalk shortly after the
decease of the latter, spoke as follows:

"I see around me the life-long friends and neighbors of Senator Ferry,
now no more; a man whom I cherished as a dear companion and associate, and
to whom I looked up as one of the foremost men of the republic, in talent,
integrity and patriotic spirit. More than almost any one I knew did he
possess those qualities of mind and character which just at this period of
our history are so greatly needed for the guidance of public affairs. There
was in him a clearness and grasp of judgment which no sophistry could
baffle, a sense of right and wrong which no party spirit could stagger; a
depth and strength of conviction which no self-interest could obscure; a
force of will which no opposition could bend; an independence and pride of
genuine manhood which no frown of power could frighten, and no blandishment
could seduce. Had his body been as strong as his mind and heart, he would
beyond doubt have compelled universal recognition as one of the very first
of statesmen in American history.

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